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Wow! Great shots! However, on the cardinal almost the first thing I noticed was that the foot was blurry. I know that it would have been moving, so maybe a faster shutter speed would have helped, and then again maybe it just adds to the effect to leave it blurry.

On the squirrel the tail seemed just a hair over exposed, but maybe its just me. Was it taken in direct sunlight? That could easily explain it! Also, that stick in front of the squirrel is a little distracting, but I don’t imagine there was much that could be done about that. Perhaps a different angle would have helped.

on the cardinal almost the first thing I noticed was that the foot was blurry.

yes I used a slow shutter speed to show action in the foot I have never seen a cardinal scratch its head until then. it is amusing 😃

On the squirrel the tail seemed just a hair over exposed, but maybe its just me. Was it taken in direct sunlight? That could easily explain it! Also, that stick in front of the squirrel is a little distracting, but I don’t imagine there was much that could be done about that. Perhaps a different angle would have helped.

it was a sunny day but at the time the pic was taken the sun was behind a cloud it might have been that I Brighten it up to much in photoshop
and the stick it all happened so fast i did not think about a different angle… maybe I should go pick up all the sticks in my yard so that won’t happen again LOL

Yeah, motion blur like that can be a fantastic creative effect. Perhaps the reason why the blur was taken as a distraction more than a creative effect is because the rest of the image has also the very slightest feeling of being unsharp (due to factors that you may not have been able to do anything about, like ISO and lens glass quality) thus making the distinction between “intentional blur” and unintentional unsharpness is not immediately distinguished.

The important thing is that you are capturing character. Keep looking for that. I like the “grandpa half-smile” on the squirrel.